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tv   The Ed Show  MSNBC  October 2, 2012 11:00pm-12:00am EDT

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are a whole layer of public officials who you vote for who put these laws in place at the state level, who appoint the judges or the judges are elected themselves. you've got to pay attention to off your elections and pay attention down that ballot because it is in your state that these laws are made, not in the white good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show." 25 hours before the first presidential debate and 35 days until the 2012 election. mitt romney and paul ryan are scrambling. robert gibbs is here tonight to respond. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. you can use your charitable deduction or home mortgage deduction and can fill a that bucket, if you will. >> mitt romney breaks out the golden bucket to save his budget. tonight, obama campaign's senior adviser on mitt romney's fuzzy
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math. devastating new poll numbers show mitt romney's secret video is crushing his campaign. >> i'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility. >> richard wolffe on how aggressive the president needs e to be on the 47% tape. mitt romney's billionaire base is starting to lose their cool. >> we need leadership, not criticism. we need encouragement, not discouragement. >> e.j. deon on why billionaires who do so well under obama can't stand the president. and democrats with a victory for voters in pennsylvania, but republican voter fraud is getting swept under the rug here in colorado. tonight the latest on the rnc's voter fraud scandal. good to have you with us. thanks for watching. we're coming to you tr from denver, colorado. the first presidential debate one day away.
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this is the romney pre-game show. will mitt romney be held accountable for lies and distortions about president obama's record? we got a sneak preview of what happens when mitt romney is forced to tell the truth. a fox affiliate here in denver asked romney to explain what paul ryan could not, how he plans to pay for $5 trillion tax cut by only eliminating deductions. >> there's an option. you could say everybody is going to get up to a deduction and you could use your home mortgage deduction or others, health care deduction and fill that bucket, if you will, the $17,000 bucket that way and higher income people might have a lower number. >> at least the plan has a name. it's the bucket plan. mitt romney will cap deductions at $17,000 for all americans. is that good for the middle class? do the math. for rich americans, the cap, it just might be lower than that.
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he was very vague on that point as well. the big problem with romney's bucket plan besides being hilarious is it would only cover $1 to $2 trillion of the $5 trillion tax cut. that's according to the tax policy center. they figured it out. even when romney gives specifics he doesn't answer the questions. e we still don't know how he plans to pay for the tax cuts without hurting the middle class. paul ryan is sticking to his reason for not giving any specifics to chris wallace on fox news. he said he had no time. >> i'm going to give you the time now to answer the question. >> when i start getting the numbers. >> that's right. >> ryan was given the time by bloomberg television. he had a new excuse for not being specific. he says mitt romney can't show congress all of his cards before he gets elected. >> you don't say to congress to democrats you want to work with,
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take it or leave it. it's all my way or the highway. you say here's my framework. obviously, the numbers add up. we have shone that. >> hang on a second. ryan says they have shown these numbers and shown how they work. folks, they have not. it's impossible to show how numbers work when you refuse to provide the numbers. this is what the debate moderator and the american people need to watch out for tomorrow night to be on guard against. the romney campaign shows time and time again that they are willing to flat out lie whenever it just suits the evening, when it suits them just fine, they will throw it out there and hope it sticks to the wall. most of the keystones to romney's campaign are based on lies and distortions. let's go through them all. romney says president obama stole billions from medicare. the president cut wasteful spending. romney's camp created an entire ad campaign about president obama revoking the work
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requirement from welfare. the ads were totally debunked but romney kept airing them any way and stands by them today. good debate talk tomorrow night. mitt romney says he's going to repeal obama care and replace it with something to keep people from being uninsured. but an analysis from the commonwealth fund shows mitt romney would leave 72 million more people uninsured, 12 million higher than before obama care. recently mitt romney said his campaign never ran any intentionally false advertising. we have been ab chutely spot-on, he said. any time there's anything that's been a miss we correct it or remove it. i kind of talk like romney, don't i? this is coming from a guy whose first campaign ad against barack obama presented a quote about john mccain and pretended that president obama was saying it
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about himself. they defended the ad as honest. romney is running on his business create. he says he created 100,000 jobs as the ce ork as bain. he claimed he had no involvement with managing bain after 1999. but wait a minute. sec filings show him as the ceo and sole stake holder in the company for three additional years. now during those years, what happened? thousands of people were laid off in the bain companies while mitt romney profited. speaking of bain, romney says he's going to get tough on china as president if he's elected. even though his recent tax returns show that he was making investment money all from chinese internet companies accused of stealing american content. he says president obama apologizes for america overseas even though not a single transcript ever shows him apologizing. when mitt romney had a chance to
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weigh in on the international incident, what did he do? he accused president obama of sympathizing with american enemies. back here at home, romney says the stimulus did not create a single job even though the budget office says it created as 3.3 million jobs. we got more. president obama raised taxes on the the middle class until last week when he slipped up and said president obama never raised taxes but will raise them soon. it was mitt romney who said let detroit go bankrupt. then he saw what happened after the automobile loan from the federal government saved 1.5 million american jobs and ohio's economy. and all of a sudden, mitt romney says the auto loan, that was just a good idea. and mitt romney says he will be the president for all americans.
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don't forget that. even though he was caught on tape saying he can never convince 47% of americans to take responsibility for themselves. this is why mitt romney can't be let off the hook in the debate tomorrow night. but it's hard to press him on these issues when he doesn't even answer the questions. here it is. >> what is the biggest misconception about you in the public debate right now? >> we'll have to create more jobs, have less debt and shrink the size of government. >> misconceptions about you? >> you get to ask the questions you want and i get to give the answers i want. >> i hope there's a moment like that tomorrow night. not going to be easy for jim lehrer. even if romney won't answer for them, it needs to be spelled out loud and clear to the american people who have been lied to. mitt romney has not been straight with americans on where he stands and where he wants to take the country and there's no
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better platform than for the president to take him to the house. how can you expect him to be straight with you as president when he can't even run his own campaign? get your cell phones out. tonight's question, will mitt romney continue his campaign of lies at tomorrow's debate? text a for yes or b or no. you can always go to our blog. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. joining me is robert gibbs, senior obama campaign adviser. great to have you with us tonight. there's so much meat on the bones here. we have laid out all of the distortions and the lies that we have seen from the romney campaign. there's a lot of target-rich environment for president obama. what about this tax plan. is president obama obligated to supporters to point out to them that this is flawed? what do you think? >> i think the moderators are going e to ask governor romney
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about a lot of the things that you just talked about. i hope the moderator gives governor romney a chance to do what paul ryan said he didn't have time to do and that is explain how they pay for a $5 trillion tax cut. as you pointed out, ed, it is a time problem that is vexing in this budget. it's a math problem. they can't pay for it. if they can't pay for it, then they are going to raise taxes on the middle class. that's what the economic studies have shown. and look, i don't know anybody who thinks we're another tax cut for a millionaire away from a stronger middle class. that's just not how we have built our economy before and it's not how we're going to continue to make our country strong now. >> will president obama confront romney on these issues or rely on the debate moderator to do
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it? how aggressive will the president be? >> i think the debate moderator will get into this. i think the president will push back particularly on some of these budget and tax issues. i have no doubt they are going to get a chance to talk about the auto bailout you were discussing and mitt romney is wanting to let detroit go bankrupt. and i think the president looks towards tomorrow as a great opportunity to have a long conversation with the american people about where we have been, about the tough times we have been through, the progress we're making, and post importantly what we want to do to strengthen manufacturing, create jobs here at home, make sure we have the best education system in the world and give, as i said before, some real strength and security to middle-class families. >> is the 47% comment the game changer so far? does the obama campaign feel this really has put the wind at your back? this is a clear distinction about who cares about the 100% and the 47%.
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there's new tape from paul ryan that has surfaced. he doesn't sound too different from mitt romney. here's ryan talking about people who rely on government assistance. here it is. >> before too long, we would become a society we were never intended to be. we could become a society where americans are takers and not makers, 70% of americans want the american dream. they believe in the american idea. only 30% want the welfare state. >> doesn't had this show the american people what romney and ryan think about struggling americans? >> absolutely. my favorite thing is mitt romney said it was inelegantly stated when he said about the 47%. i hope that mitt romney e gets a chance to elegantly state what he said about the 47% of the american people not caring enough to take responsibility for their own situations in
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life. and i think, you know, what that crystallized for people, ed, is what they suspected about governor romney and paul ryan all along. and that is they don't really care about the middle class in this country. they are not really concerned about and they certainly don't understand what it's like to work hard and try to get ahead in the country. to play by the rules, but have a different set of rules for people like wall street. that's what that tape did. it crystallized for people that this is not a group that believes in a middle economic recovery. it's all about top down. >> all right. robert gibbs, great to have you with us tonight on "the ed show." remember to answer the question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. the romney camp says they are prepared for the 47% comments.
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can he reverse the damage? richard wolffe and alex wagner will join me next for the discussion. stay tuned. mr. margin? don't be modest, bob. you found a better way to pack a bowling ball. that was ups. and who called ups? you did, bob. i just asked a question. it takes a long time to pack a bowling ball. the last guy pitched more ball packers. but you... you consulted ups. you found a better way. that's logistics. that's margin. find out what else ups knows. i'll do that. you're on a roll. that's funny. i wasn't being funny, bob. i know. email marketing from constant contact reaches people in a place they're checking every day -- their inbox. and it gives you the tools to create custom emails that drive business. it's just one of the ways constant contact can help you grow your small business. sign up for your free trial today
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coming up, new poll numbers show mitt romney's 47% comments have take an toll. can tomorrow's debate be a game changer? richard wolffe and alex wagner will join me for a debate preview, next. the obama campaign launches a new ad targeting mitt romney's investment in china with bain capital. we'll have the response and talk with ohio senator sherrod brown. and a big day for swing state voters. early voting begins in ohio and a pennsylvania court blocks a voter i.d. law. all the details. share your thoughts on facebook and on twitter using the #edshow. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr
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thanks for watching "the ed show." mitt romney is running behind in the polls. he needs to bring his a game tomorrow night. does he has have a game? romney has an uphill climb on his hands. no doubt about it. the comments about the 47% has done some real damage to the campaign. >> that infamous piece of tape is being given analysis by the american people. the latest poll shows just 23% of likely voters say romney's comments made them think more positively about the candidate. 45% said it made them feel more negatively about mitt romney. romney senior adviser ed gillespie said they are expecting the 47% remark to come up in tomorrow's debate and is prepared to answer it and
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address it. we believe the voters will see and appreciate the fact that what governor romney's talking about would improve the quality of life for 100% of americans. joining me tonight is msnbc political analyst richard wolffe and host of "now with alex wagner", alex wagner. congratulations on your show. it's really taken off. >> thank you, ed. >> there's damage here. i mean, the polls show it. you can almost feel it. richard, how does he reverse the damage tomorrow night? >> if he's smart, he tries to see the debate as a chance to reintroduce himself to the american people. he blew that opportunity in the conventions, but this isn't a
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moment for zingers. this is not a moment about landing the punch. no matter how badly you think you want it, you have to take a much more measured approach that this is a conversation, this is a case where he hasn't communicated who he is and what he stands for. the problem is in the context of the 47% where that's been the explaining narrative for everything you don't like about mitt romney, he has to get beyond that and say this is who i really am. he's not just saying who he is, but he's saying the guy i think i am, i'm not that guy. it's hard to do in a two-minute response. >> alex, how aggressive do you think president obama should be with allover the distortions that have come from the romney campaign? where does it take the president tomorrow night? >> i think there's no way the president is not going to
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mention the 47% thing. but to richard's point, this is something team romney is prepared for. there's so many other things the president can take romney to task for. his campaign has been a hall of mirrors. everything from his recent comments about amnesty for the children of undocumented workers, which is a reversal from earlier in the campaign to his tax policy, which is literally the most confusing thing ever, so confusing that there's no amount of time in which paul ryan or mitt romney can explain any of the specifics. if i were obama, the 47% might be an organizing principle, but at the end of the day, the american public want specifics and there are a number of policy items where the president is in a strong position. >> well, richard, i find it so amazing that a couple days before the debate, which is a big platform for mitt romney because of what the polls are doing, he happens to come up
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with this $17,000 deduction in this tax plan that he fully can't explain. i mean this is such a dark mentality. how important is it for the president to draw distinction between the candidates? >> the problem for the president is he's debating a piece of jell-o. so every time he tries to close on it, it wobbles into a new shape. is it his position on abortion? position on pro-life? that makes him a very difficult debate opponent if you think it's about engagement and everything we have heard from the romney side is they think it's about engagement. that's what they want to do. i think the president will take a different tact, which is ignore the other side. speak to people in the living room about yourself. you may like him, you may not like him, but you know who the president is. you can't say the other thing is true about the other guy.
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joe biden made remarks ab the middle class being buried. here it is. >> vice president biden just today said that the middle class over the last four years has been, quote, buried. we agree. of course, the middle class has been buried. they are being buried by regulations, by taxes, by borrowing, they are being buried by the obama administration's economic failures. >> the romney campaign is taking remarks out of context. alex, will it work or is it just desperation? >> i think it's a real mistake whenever the romney campaign tries to play on the same field as the president and joe biden. nobody is a better surrogate, speaks more to the pain of the working and middle class than joe biden. don't even go there, paul ryan. that straight to camera shot, you saw both campaigns come out
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with ads. president obama is a much better speaker. he's more direct and communicates warmth and honesty. from mitt romney it seems hollow. if i were the romney campaign, i would stay with the fix it thing. do everything short of coming out with mops and brooms and talk about the economy. whenever they try to play the genuine american attack, it never works for them. they fall flat and it always rings hollow. >> alex, richard, great to have you with us on "the ed show." coming up, the obama campaign released a new ad hammering mitt romney for outsourcing jobs to a chinese company with sweat shop conditions during his time at bain capital. sherrod brown will be joining me on that and other issues. and billionaires are getting antsy about the possibility of president obama's reelection. and they are starting to whine big time. stay tuned. you're watching "the ed show."
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welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching. last week documents obtained by the "boston globe" revealed that they had invested in global tech. it's a chinese-based company less than two weeks after the company promoted its inexpensive labor and low tax rate. mitt romney was listed as president and ceo of the brookside fund at the time. now just ahead of the first
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presidential debate, the obama campaign has released this hard-hitting ad in several manufacturing and swing states. here it is. >> these appliances could have been made here in america, but a company called global tech maximized profits by paying employees next to nothing. when mitt romney led bain, they saw it as a good investment even knowing that the firm promoted its practice of low-wage labor. mitt romney, tough on china? since when? >> a romney spokeswoman responded, this is another overboard ad from a president trying to distract from his failure to stand up to china. the statement goes on, but not once does it actually deny any of the charges against mitt romney. let's turn to ohio senator sherrod brown. good to have you with us tonight. i think this latest obama ad plays right to the workers of
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ohio. mitt romney and bain capital were at the forefront of outsourcing jobs to china. what has outsourcing done to other manufacturing states? how damaging is this? >> it's been very damaging. we have seen a trade deficit explode. take auto parts. ten years ago, the trade deficit was $1 billion with china on auto parts. today it's $10 billion. that's why the president at the urging of a number of us, they have taken china to the world trade organization to show china is cheating and to ask for tariffs to protect american companies and to protect american workers. and we're seeing a pattern of the government finally on the side of workers, finally on the side of american manufacturing, standing up for american workers against china. we have a new steel mill.
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we're seeing jobs actually come to this country or stay in this country because we're standing up and enforcing trade rules. >> romney and the republicans keep talking about another tax cut for the job creators. don't we just see them increasing their profits by outsourcing this way? i mean, the model that romney wants to lay on the country, how could it be good for workers in ohio? >> well, it's not. we tried these tax cuts for the rich. hoping it trickles down to the middle class, it doesn't work. what works is when you build the economy from the middle class out. the auto rescue has worked in ohio. we're not where we need to be, but more than three percentage points lower than in 2010. we have more tire jobs, more steel jobs, more aluminum jobs in sydney, ohio. i want the president to take one more step and that is and romney could help us with this. they could pass my legislation
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in the house. we have passed it in the senate to level the playing field on chinese currency, the largest bipartisan jobs bill to pass the senate. we're asking -- >> he hasn't. and the romney camp keeps coming back. it's passed in the senate and boehner won't bring it up in the house. the obama campaign is out today with a new ad about a campaign stop mitt romney made in ohio. i want to get your reaction to it. here it is. >> the coal miners in these ads, turns out they were told that attendance at mitt romney's rally was, quote, mandatory. their mine was closed, lost the pay they needed. all to be propped in romney's commercial. >> employees feel they were forced to go. they had to take the day off without pay. they had a roll call. they they had a list of who was
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there and who wasn't. they felt they wouldn't have a job if they didn't go. >> on one hand, the business model is to outsource the jobs. when you have a chance to use the workers in a commercial, your thoughts on this? >> no surprise. the same stuff. i go back. if mitt romney would pick up the phone and call john boehner, join our effort, we're putting pressure on boehner to pass this. 20 senators have signed a letter. come to our grass roots. put pressure on boehner. we'll schedule this trade enforcement legislation for china. that will make a real difference in jobs. not the stuff that romney is talking about. >> you're not going to get a letter from mitt romney. you have a great idea, senator, but any candidate that would use forced workers to be props in a campaign, i wouldn't count on him for anything. sherrod brown with us here on "the ed show." lots more coming up in the next half hour. stay right here.
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voter i.d., which is going to allow mitt romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> republican voter suppression in pennsylvania is dealt a death blow in the courts. but the cheating goes on in colorado. tonight an update on the rnc voter fraud scandal. early voting starts today. today. >> the first lady is firing up supporters as voters swarm the polls. we'll bring you the latest on ohio early voting. and mitt romney's billionaire supporters are complaining about the president louder than ever. >> we need leadership, not criticism. we need encouragement, not discouragement. >> tonight e.j. dionne on the obama/billionaire hate club. sweetie, you have to scrub it first. no you don't, honey. yes, you do! don't! i've washed a few cupcake tins in my day...
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grates on me. for at least a few years now, we have been told how president obama is just alienating wall street. billionaires have got it so rough. they are going to turn against him to make sure president obama is not reelected. now that the election is just 35 days away and president obama, you got to admit looks pretty strong in the polls, some of these billionaires are beginning to whine a little bit. they don't like the environment of what's happening. here's sam zell, listen to this. >> how the, quote, 1% or the 10%, the top earners moved ahead of everybody. i wonder if there's any correlation between while they were moving ahead, the rest of the government was subsidizing, subsidizing more and more people. i think they are disincentive
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vised by if you don't pay for health care, that's another thing you don't have to worry about. >> he sounds like he could be sitting at the mitt romney fundraiser. his disdain of the 47% is the same as mitt romney's. he's not the only algart complaining. leon cooperman, this hedge fund manager and former obama supporter, said this, you know, the largest and greatest country in the free world put a 47-year-old guy that never worked a day in his life and made him in charge of the free world. not totally different from taking adolph hitler in germany and making him in charge of germany because people were economically dissatisfied. you know, this is absolutely repulsive. what are these billionaires
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upset about? the stock market is up over 100% since 2009. corporate profits are at an 18-year high. personal taxes, the lowest rate in 50 years. these guys have never had it any better, but they hate obama. they hate president obama because we might be going down the road to make sure more americans get health insurance. by the way, a new study says mitt romney's health care plan wouldn't just take us back it the levels of uninsured americans that existed before obama care, it would actually make things worse. according to the fund, romney's plan would increase the number to 72 million. i guess sam zell thinks that would give those people an incentive to succeed? when you're a billionaire, you really don't have to worry about anything, do you? let's turn to e.j. dionne, msnbc contributor and author of the book "our divided political
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heart." great to have you with us tonight. it would seem to me if there was one portion of our society quiet about the way things are going in our economy it would be the wealthiest americans. how does this play out? >> you know, this is a very, very strange and disturbing thing, as you said. i mean the piece that's inspiring a lot of conversations about this is the wonderful piece in "the new yorker" which is a real document for our time. one of the things she says, she reports on a sense of victimization among so many of america's wealthiest people. if they feel like the victims, i guess all of the country ought to feel like victims. what's amazing here is the anti-obama venom. let's go back to march of 2009. the economy, the whole system was on the verge of collapse.
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the stock market was down in the 6,000s. and obama made two decisions. one was to prop the thing up and keep it going in alliance with other countries around the world and literally saved the fortunes of a lot of these people. but he made a second decision. there were progressives who thought we should have asked more questions about how did we get into this mess in the first place and president obama didn't go there because his advisers were worried if you push the system too hard, it might collapse. and so here are folks whose fortunes were saved in significant part by the president's policies and they are complaining because he doesn't say thank you to them. it's very strange. >> these guys got exactly what they wanted and just won't admit it. let's play more sound from sam zell. >> we need leadership, not criticism. until that scenario changes, i
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think the united states is, quote, unquote, and i hate to use this word, in a malaise. >> what the hell is he talking about? he's being criticized and president obama hasn't provided leadership. your thoughts on this. >> in that piece, she notes that 93% of the gains in the recovery of 2009/2010, 93% went to the top 1%. isn't that encouragement enough? and what about encouragement to the uninsured? they couldn't use a little bucking up? it's very weird to have very rich people feel like victims. and being very rich isn't enough. they want us to look at the world exactly the way they do. and i don't know how any group of people can expect that. for people like us who would say maybe we're given a little too much to finance. maybe we should give more to
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manufacturing or more to working people. that's just not true. so this is a remarkable point we have come to. >> it really is a remarkable point. the people that have gotten all the breaks, that have gotten the deregulation and tax breaks and the best tax rates they have had in years, they are complaining about a president who is not saying the right things to him. i find it amazing. e.j., great to have you with us. thanks so much. coming up, early voting kicked off in ohio today. things are looking good for president obama. we'll bring you all of the latest from the buckeye state next. stay with us. you can't leave the table till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love.
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colorado. we'll have the details and i'll talk with the chairman of the democratic party. stay tuned. we're right back. buy 'em or don't. whatever man. either way, he gets to fly helicopters all day. and he eats the liquid gold of velveeta shells & cheese. achieve your dreams. eat like that guy you know.
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we are back. early voting kicked off in the battleground state of ohio today. and as you can tell those folks are fired up voters. the buckeye state looking good. but attempts to kill off early voting by republicans have failed. obama supporters camped out at polling stations around ohio last night as part of the sleep out the vote effort. polls officially opened at 8:00 a.m. this morning and thousands of voters have already cast their ballots. this is good news for president obama as early voters favor democrats. first day voter turnover in
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lucas county doubled that in 2008. of the 928 voters, there were 696 democrats, 40 republicans, 192 with no affiliation. michelle obama fired up voters in cincinnati today. she warned supporters the fight for ohio is not over. >> early voting starts today. today. we need you to sign up to make phone calls, to knock on doors, to help get the vote out. but more importantly, we need you to talk to everybody you know. remind them what's at stake in this election. >> shortly after that, the obama campaign tweeted out this photo of a marching band rallying voters in cincinnati. president obama's campaign is simply outworking the romney camp in ohio. there are 96 field offices compared to 36 for romney. 38% of the ohio vote was cast early before the election in
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2008. and this year it could reach 40%. republicans have done everything in their power to block the vote in ohio, but thanks to solid work from the obama campaign, their efforts are failing early on. the latest quinnipiac poll shows obama with a 10-point lead over romney in ohio. but beware. michael delaware caucus had the lead back in 1988. this is a long haul, but it's a great start. tonight in our survey, i asked will mitt romney continue his campaign of lies at tomorrow's debate? 98% of you said yes, 2% said no. coming up, the good news and bad news for voters. a key court case and voter registration scandal. detail when is we come back.
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in the big finish tonight, the republicans suffered a setback in court. republicans in pennsylvania tried to suppress the vote through a tough voter i.d. law. it could have kept at least 758,000 people from voting. but today the judge blocked a key part of the law. his ruling means voters will be asked for an i.d. but they can go ahead and vote without one. the ruling only covers this election. the decision is bad news for republicans in pennsylvania. earlier this year one of the party leaders boasted the law would help mitt romney win the
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election. >> voter i.d., which is going to allow mitt romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> pennsylvania is just one of 41 states to pass restrictive new voting laws since president obama won in 2008. so far 17 states have successfully passed restrictive votesing laws since president obama won the white house. republicans in ohio tried to squash early voting. the gop tried to purge the voter roles in florida. the republicans have claimed all along they are trying to stop voter fraud. but look what happens. it turns out they are the ones who were cheating. a get out the vote scandal is rocking the republican party. strategic allied consulting was hired to help register voters. now they are firing the firm. florida has turned up 100 suspicious voter forms and in colorado one worker was caught on tape claiming she worked for the county? >> you work for romney obama? >> i thought you were rej sterg
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voters. >> i am. >> who are you registering? all voters? >> i'm trying to register people for a particular party because we're out here in support of romney actually. >> who is paying you for this? >> let me see, we're working for the county clerk's office. >> that went viral. strategic allied consulting fired that girl in the video. and it denies any wrong doing whatsoever. here's the bottom line. the republicans talk about preventing voter fraud but they get real quiet when they get caught doing the cheating. joining me tonight is rick polasio, chairman of the democratic party.
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there's this operation going on here in the state of colorado. why isn't voter registration, this scandal, getting more attention this n this state? >> it should be getting more attention. it's outrageous that the republican party decided to hire a firm with such a long and sorted history of committing fraud. it's happening here in and in other states and it's unfortunate that more media outlets haven't been picking this story up. >> this videotape is damaging and very telling. i feel sorry for the girl. she's caught up in something she's probably not aware of. what are you doing to counter this ground game out there? >> it's a good point. i feel badly for this woman because it sounds to me like she was under very strict orders to not divulge who she was working for. what we're going to continue to do is up until the election, make sure we turn them out the
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way our plan was in place. >> colorado has been evenly split for almost a generation. how can you help president obama win this election, to keep the state blue, and how crucial do you think your state is? >> it's no doubt that colorado is a battleground state. we only have nine electoral votes, but we're confident if we work the way we have been working, those nine votes are going to go for the president. we have an incredible ground operation. we have 59 field offices open. this is a neighbor to neighbor campaign. that's how we're going to win. >> are you concerned about the hispanic voter suppression republicans are doing? and how important is that hispanic vote to president obama in this state?
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>> the hispanic vote is incredibly important. it's important in colorado and across the country. we want to make sure the people understand it's easy to vote, but second, you have to take responsibility and ensure that you are gistered to vote. if you think you are, go online and make sure that you are registered. because it is going to come down to perhaps just several thousand votes. >> it's going to be that tight? >> it could be. we had an election in 2010 with senator michael bennett and his republican opponent, i think, that election came down to 15,000 vote es. you never know. you can't predict what's going to happen on election day. >> rick polasio, great to have you with us. thanks so much. i want to thank everyone at the governor's park tavern who were there for the msnbc presidential debate eve watch party. we're heading over there right now. we're looking forward to it. that's "the ed show." the "the rachel maddow show" starts r